Incentive
by BirdieInATree
Summary: Keith and Kate's relationship was never normal, but it never had to be. She was one of the few able to get him to talk, and was a remarkable listener. This is how it happened. Keith/Kate oneshot  Not OC


_I liked the language of that time and have an original in the works, so I figured why not experiment with my favorite anime of all time? It needs more love. This particular piece was originally intended to be more conceptual, but I'm very happy with the outcome either way._

_Kate is not an original character. She is mentioned in the light novels. It's said that she's the only person to get Keith to say more than a sentence at a time. I exaggerate this a bit when necessary. I hinted at her being religious because I think that adds a bit of irony._

_Disclaimer: I don't own Baccano!._

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><p><strong>1925<strong>

Keith Gandor never had a reason to talk much.

When he plays cards he simply makes his bet or taps the table.

So, he just let's his actions speak all the time.

His brothers never minded. The other members of their family thought him strange sometimes, but he supposed that was just how things were going to be. And if they decided to think less of him of it and make him mad, well things could just be like that too and he wouldn't regret the consequences of someone else's actions.

And that's how things were for a very long time.

And then he decided, on a whim, to go see a silent film.

She was there, playing her piano. Hair cut short in the young women's fashion of the time, wearing a nice gray dress so that with skin as pale and hair as light as hers, she could have just fallen into the film. He was glad it looked more like she had fallen out of it.

The woman—because that's all she was at the time—was all he truly paid attention to at that moment. Oh yes, he clapped when the show ended, but when he was sure it was a good moment, he pointed her out carefully to Luck. He tried not to liken it to a child pointing out which ice cream he wanted, but in hindsight that was almost what it looked like.

"Hmm, she is pretty. I haven't seen her in any speakeasies…" he chuckled as they started to leave, "Of course you'd notice someone on the right side of the law."

But Keith was still glancing at her, preparing her next piece for the following show.

He came back to the theater the next week. No bodyguards—this was when he was younger and not so much a target—just himself and a driver that knew him well enough to get around town with pointing.

Keith was a lucky man even when he couldn't quite be called one, catching her just as she left through the back door.

She kept her head down, clearly not as rebellious as her looks may have seemed. "Oh, excuse me sir…" she said, trying to hurry away.

The oldest Gandor blocked her path, "Mm."

She looked up and her eyes widened. "Ah, I'm sorry if I…"

"No… 's fine."

He hadn't had to speak in a while.

And suddenly it was worth it.

The pianist looked rightfully confused, "Umm…"

He pursed his lips, making a small noise in the back of his throat.

Unlike what one might have believed, he didn't look insane or threatening. Of course, the poor pianist was a tad nervous, and the Mafioso was reconsidering asking her alone. Otherwise, they were both just very confused.

He cleared his throat, taking a deep breath and muttering, "You play well."

She had always hoped having such an open and imaginative mind would help her out eventually. She smiled, "Thank you sir. Did you just come out here to tell me that?"

Keith tried to answer in the negative.

"So were you looking for something else?"

He scratched the back of his head, looking a bit sheepish.

"May I know your name?"

It took him a second to remember it. "Keith."

"And you can call me Kate." She had come to the conclusion that this Keith was perfectly intelligent, just not talkative. Well, not talkative really meant pretty much mute at this point.

Miss Kate really did have a remarkable mind to come to such quick and accurate conclusions concerning Keith.

She discovered very quickly that he was quite the listener.

That first day they ended up going to get coffee at a quiet little shop. She talked pretty much the entire time. Sometimes there were gaps in the conversation when he would mutter a phrase or two.

It would be another couple of dates before she learned more about him.

Meanwhile the younger Gandor brothers were having quite a time teasing their brother. Their father still being alive at this point, they didn't have much to do except not get killed.

After Luck was done with what few classes he had—those he did he passed without issue—they spent some time wandering Gandor territory.

And, well, this was the first time they'd had anything to tease their big brother with and he wouldn't beat them up.

"So Keith has a little girlfriend, does he?"

"Oh yes, the cute pianist playing at that silent movie." Luck answered with a slight smile.

Berga let out a laugh, "The flapper?"

"Maybe our big brother has a rebellious side. Who knew?"

Keith was not amused.

"Well, what's her name?" Berga prompted.

He didn't look at them when he muttered, "Kate."

"Kate and Keith, Keith and Kate. It sounds nice enough." Luck commented. He knew Keith probably wouldn't answer any more questions, so he said, "You should head out to town here in a couple of days. There's some sort of fair going on."

Keith looked at his brother appreciatively.

Then Berga spoke up again.

He turned down an alley to head back home, his brothers following on instinct rather than choice.

He was quite proud of that sort of thing, really.

Keith showed up at Kate's house a few days later, bouquet of flowers in hand.

He knocked, and a slight but loud old woman answered the door.

Kate was not a very rich lady, he knew, but he wasn't sure how to ask for…

"Oh, you must be that boy Kate's been blathering about for the past week." She paused and readjusted her large, thick glasses, "You look fairly sturdy, but take off that hat before someone thinks you a rumrunner."

Keith looked a tad uncomfortable at this, but the lady didn't notice.

"Sweetie, that boy is here!"

He heard a voice from upstairs, "What? Oh, I'll be down in a moment Nana!"

Sure enough, Kate appeared a few moments later.

Sadly those few moments ended up being Keith staring at the smiling old lady blankly, but it still didn't take very long.

It was clear she hadn't done much to her hair, and her dress was rumpled. She wore no jewelry, and her make-up was both hastily and lightly done.

Keith thought she looked absolutely beautiful.

"Keith? What are you doing here?"

He held out the flowers.

She smiled broadly, "What are these for?"

The young man gently took her hand, beckoning her outside.

"Nana, I think I'll be going out for a little while."

As much as Keith knew about her, about her likes and dislikes, about her quiet personality as the youngest child and last to marry, about her taking care of her nieces and nephews with her Nana, Kate would only learn more about him after a few dates and little practice at talking to him.

She also met his brothers.

She was surprised at how they could look so much alike and so different at the same time. It was easy to guess the short and slight young man called Luck and the giant Berga were related to Keith.

Of course, that didn't occur to her when they showed up at her door, even though she just so happened to be waiting to go out to dinner with him.

"'scuse me dame, we're looking for a friend of a friend, you could say." said the shorter one.

"Yeah, a Miss Kate something or other." responded the taller one.

She wasn't sure how to respond, but it could only hurt more to lie. "Who is your brother?"

They glanced at each other. The shorter one shrugged, "Keith Gandor."

Her eyes widened. Gandor? _That's a mob name. _"Umm… I might be the Kate you're looking for."

"We already know you are." the short one smiled.

"My name's Berga, and this is Luck. Brothers in the Gandor family."

"Quit it." she didn't relax at the voice, though she knew who it belonged to.

"Oh, hey Keith. We were just looking for you." Berga explained.

Keith shot him a look, which to him was almost always a glare.

"Look, we didn't mean to intimidate your sweetheart here. I didn't think she was that jumpy." Berga said.

"You… You're in the mafia?"

Luck spoke. "Well that clears things up."

She ran back into the house.

It took him three days to find her again.

Well, actually it took him three days to figure out what he was even going to do.

Should he apologize? No, he was quite proud of his family. Should he explain? Okay, that took more than a few words…

…should he lie?

Lies take more words than truths, in the end. Well, not so much take as steal.

So he walked up to the little door where he'd last seen her, left some flowers and an apology—just "sorry"—and then had the driver go back home.

He had been home for about an hour when a knock on the door to his study almost caused him to drop his book.

Of course it would be Kate, standing uncomfortably but with a certain sort of stubbornness. She looked up when the door opened, trying to find words. She settled on "You don't have to be sorry."

He snatched her by the waist and kissed her, too gently for a Mafioso. She pressed back, but didn't go further.

That would come another day, when her conscience and religious upbringing couldn't get in the way.

It was good for reconciling, really; especially without words.

Instead she let him pull her over to the desk, shuffling some papers aside and sitting her in the chair. He still looked as grim as ever, but she thought he was a bit excited about something.

He retreated to a bookshelf, and she watched him flip through the shelves. To be honest, she didn't want to look somewhere and find something that might get her in trouble. She didn't tell Keith that, though.

He returned with a few papers plucked from an old, thick book.

She looked through them, a bit surprised, "Sheet music?"

He nodded. "You play."

"Well yes, I just didn't expect it…"

"…" His brow furrowed a bit more.

"Thank you."

He glanced down again, a slight blush on his stoic face.

Kate found that she liked it when he showed a little emotion.

They began to meet up nearly every day in some tiny park, where they simply walked around. Kate would talk about her day, and Keith would listen intently. She occasionally asked a question or two, and he answered in one way or another.

Then she would go to work, and he would sit in for a performance. Sometimes not a whole one, if he knew he needed to be home earlier, but every once and a while he would meet up when her shift was over.

One time it was covered in blood.

He was sitting in the alley in the back, a grimace on his face instead of a scowl. His face and collarbone were bruised and his sleeve was bloodied, but he was breathing.

And that was the only thing reassuring Kate when she dropped her bag and umbrella –it had been raining earlier—to run to the injured man.

"Keith! Keith, are you okay?"

He nodded.

She wasn't sure what to do, what to say, and she needed him to just _tell her._

He noticed. "Thugs caught me unaware. 's not bad, but I need bandages."

It was the most he had ever said to her or anyone in a while. He could have gone home, where someone else would definitely know what to do the moment he walked in the door, but he didn't. When the men had come out of nowhere with knives and he'd known they could overpower him, he just wanted to get back to that little theater.

So he'd pulled out a switchblade and knocked a couple of guys around until he could get away.

They might have knocked him around a little as well.

She tossed his arm over her shoulder and did her best to support his sore body. He grunted when he felt a bruise he hadn't noticed earlier and one of the joints in his right arm, the one he punched with, popped audibly.

Kate dragged him across the street to her home, glad that the street had cleared once the shows ended. He moved stiffly, but seemed okay when she didn't look at the blood on his sleeve.

"Nana, Nana open up!" She yelled, pounding the door.

The little old woman appeared after a few moments, and Kate pushed past her without further explanation. The pianist set him down at the small kitchen table before turning to the sink.

Her grandmother came in and, without a word, set down cloth wrappings that would work as bandages for his arm. She then stepped over to stand in front of Keith, took his hat off and set it on the table as well, and then left Kate to her work.

Keith rolled back his sleeve, inspecting the cut he'd received. It was deep, and would definitely scar, but the bleeding had steadily slowed.

Kate appeared a moment later to clean it, and he'd winced involuntarily at the warm rag on the raw muscle. She'd wrapped it tightly, and he was gritting his teeth so hard he wasn't sure if everything Kate was doing was right.

She tied it off, and held out the remainder of the last strip she'd used. He wordlessly shuffled his knife out of his pocket, handing it to her.

She opened it and found the blade was bloody. It hit the ground with a clang, and a gasp.

Keith went home to wash his dirtied face, and pick up a new knife.

He didn't meet her at her house, the park, or even the theater. She wandered far into Gandor territory on purpose, but couldn't spot him.

She took a turn down an alley, planning to turn back through a busier road, as it was already dark. An envelope was heavy in her pocket, as she hadn't wanted to mail it. It was written in case she couldn't find Keith –which, sadly, had happened. She didn't want to think about the other option: if he wouldn't listen to her in the first place.

She was jolted from her thoughts by shadows.

Three men were following her.

Almost hopeful, she spun around.

But Kate didn't know these men.

"Lady, we ain't seen you around here before. You with one of them Runaradas?" One of the shadowed figures said.

"Yeah, you just donate a little money to the Gandor family and we'll let you off easy." Another said, gesturing to the third man, who held an iron pipe.

"Gandor?" She said quietly.

The first man was a bit confused, "That's right."

As said before, Kate had a remarkable mind when it came to matters such as this.

She stepped forward, trying not to look afraid (and succeeding). "Could you give Keith Gandor this letter?" She held out the envelope.

"'scuse me?"

"I'm a friend of his. I've been looking for him all day."

The guy opened the letter, "Eh, sure?"

"Thank you." She said, smiling and unafraid.

Then she turned, leaving the three confused men behind.

She was practicing one of the pieces he had given her.

Yes, it was cliché and a pointless display of her imaginations. No, she couldn't bring herself to care.

Not that that was a skill of hers; not caring.

She finished a particularly hard piece, and sighed heavily.

"That was dangerous."

She smiled, but didn't look back, "A piano never hurt anyone."

He hummed slightly in response. Then there were lips pressed gently to her neck, and arms wrapped around her waist as she stood.

"Thank you for coming." She said, and forgot to look composed long enough to embrace him. "I was so worried…"

"Don't have to be." He responded, almost comfortable with the situation. It wasn't often anyone bothered to get that close with good intentions. Of course, it wasn't often he himself had very nice intentions either.

"I know, I know… It'll just take some getting used to."

Keith pulled away, confused and shocked. That meant she actually wanted to take the time to "get used to things" in the first place. That hadn't really happened before either.

He smiled, though it looked odd on his face, more like a grimace really, and bent to kiss her again.

**1927**

"Keith, we have a problem." Kate said, slipping into the study quietly.

He looked up from his desk.

"Silent films… well, they're not making much money anymore." She tried. "I…I'm out of a job."

He nodded, honestly disappointed. He rather liked silent films himself, particularly when she played for them. It was a testament to the age, but hadn't lasted nearly long enough.

She bit her lip, "What am I going to do?"

Now this confused him, which she noted immediately.

"I'm unemployed, Keith. I barely finished school, and I don't really remember much… Oh, I'm going to have to go work in a factory or something…" She buried her face in her hands.

Keith was still confused at her logic, but patted her back gently. "No."

Now it was Kate's turn to be confused.

Sometimes Keith had to talk, and sometimes he was happy to do it.

He sighed, but was clearly content. "We'll just have to get married."

She smiled broadly, and kissed him hard on the lips, arms wrapping around his neck.

**1930**

Kate Gandor was having a grand time at the party, a stark contrast to her ever-stoic husband. She wasn't one for drinking, having spent much of her time away from the speakeasies, but sipped her wine contentedly. She stayed by Keith's side out of preference, a fact that he was happy to make clear.

Despite what people thought, he did end up being the first Gandor brother to get married, and it was clear by the tiny woman hanging off Berga that Luck would be the last.

He leans down to say quietly, "Try this." before handing her his glass to try.

She sipped it, "Not bad." and then she takes a longer sip just to tease him.

He makes a noise in his throat that she knows means he's laughing, somewhere deep down.

Then all hell breaks loose. He pushes her to the ground, but she's sure she feels the bullets tear through them…

**2000**

He's pretty sure he likes her music now than he did when he first heard her.

To this day he sits on the floor beside her piano bench, taking draws of a cigarette while she plays, both quite content with the old tunes that were once only heard in films.

They don't need to speak much; after a couple of decades that just became redundant. They've both modernized a bit; his suit is worth more than he was when he'd passed breadlines and her hair falls in waves that she thinks makes her look older.

Kate finishes a piece and he puts out the cigarette.

"Hon, I'm going on to bed." she says, tapping him on the shoulder. She stands, "What do you think about roast for tomorrow's dinner?"

She doesn't look at him, because she doesn't have to.

"Sounds good." he says, standing as well. He catches her by the waist before she can leave. "With mashed potatoes?"

She smiles, "Of course, now come on. I want to get up early; Kali and Berga are stopping by."

She tears herself from his grip, and he follows her into their room.

He's pretty sure he likes her music now that it's only for him.

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><p><em>A short note:<em>

_The bulk of this story was originally going to take place in 1920, but most sources say Kate was quickly put out of work by a decline in the silent film industry. I apologize if this seems a little off, but my timeline was hard to work with as I didn't have reference materials other than my own memory and my amazing parents. If anyone wants to petition a translation of the light novels…_

_Kali isn't mine; she's canon as well._


End file.
